Day 13 of #30daysofbiking-Tiptoe through the Tulips

Today I drove from Seattle northward for just over an hour to join a few folks for a ride around the tulip fields of  La Conner.  With the warm weather (68 in Seattle!) and perfect blue skies, it was not surprising that a lot of people showed up to ride. Probably 40 +/- people rode today with our group.  Cars were stacked up for miles waiting to catch a glimpse of tulips, biking was surely the preferable way to tour.

The ride was listed as a "moderate" pace (about 14 mph) but we didn't come close to that as an average.  It took 3.5 hours for us to cover the 28 miles.  Not that we rode all that slowly, but with the large group, even "short" stops became major endeavors.   We stopped a lot for photos of tulips.

When we weren't stopped for tulip photos, we were stopped for snacks, or stopped for restrooms, or stopped to regroup, or just stopped. I was no surprise that it took us over 3 hours to ride 28 miles.

Late in the ride there was a long straight stretch into a bit of headwind.  I pedaled out with purpose. A younger guy decided to make chase.  I pedaled up to 22 mph and held it a long time. The guy was holding in my slipstream.  I was about ready to throw in the towel when I noticed a bit of weakness on his part.  I reached deep and pulled out a bit more. He blinked, and dropped off the back.  I kept up 20+ mph for another mile or so just to drive a few nails in his coffin.

I turned and rode along the Skagit River. The original plan was for the group to ride along this waterway as we finiished up our ride into Mt Vernon, but there was a couple hundred yards of gravel that the ride leader thought best not to take the group over.  It was a good call on his part.  While scenic, it would have been an accident waiting to happen to take 40 riders over this section.

We finished up the ride, then patronized the Kiwanis BBQ Salmon dinner.  We drove back to Seattle then a few of us met at a waterfront watering hole for post ride debriefing, and an adult beverage or two.  It was a long day with only 28 miles to show for it.

...........road bike..........rollers........mtb.........lifecycle....total
Today.........28................0..............0...............0............28 Jan............710................0..............0...............0...........710
Feb........... 578...............0..............0...............0............578
March ...........701.............0..............0...............0............701
April..........405.................0..............0...............0..........405 Total..........2394...............0..............0...............0.........2394